Human trafficking is modern slavery: Earl Miller
The US Ambassador was addressing a workshop counter-human trafficking workshop in Dhaka
US Ambassador to Dhaka Earl R Miller has said human trafficking is modern slavery and it has no place in the world. Anywhere.
"Working with Bangladesh to fight human trafficking is a priority of the US Embassy. This workshop reaffirms our commitment to partner with the Government of Bangladesh, civil society, the private sector, and trafficking survivors to end trafficking in persons," Miller said at a counter-human trafficking workshop for tribunal judges in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Anisul Huq, minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, and the US Ambassador jointly inaugurated the event, organised by the Fight Slavery and Trafficking In-Persons (FSTIP) project and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said a press release.
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Strong collaboration between the United States and Bangladesh led to the establishment of seven special tribunals to prosecute trafficking-in-persons (TIP) and the implementation of the five-year National Plan of Action to combat human trafficking, it adds.
With US support, the Bangladesh government has strengthened the justice sector's ability to prosecute trafficking offenders.
USAID's $10 million FSTIP project is helping Bangladesh more effectively prosecute and convict human traffickers though training like this week's workshop for justice sector officers, prosecutors, and judges.
In the past five years, USAID has trained 569 judges and more than 1,000 police, public prosecutors, and lawyers on human trafficking issues so trafficking perpetrators can be caught, tried, and punished.
Bangladesh's attainment of Tier 2 status for the last two consecutive years in the US Department of State's TIP Report demonstrates the growing success of the US/Bangladesh partnership combatting human trafficking.
US programmes and funding also support community organisations to provide shelter, healthcare, counseling, life-skills and entrepreneurship training, and job placement to over 3,000 trafficking survivors.
Minister Anisul Huq; Md Golam Sarwar, secretary, Law and Justice Division, Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs; Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, director general, Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI); Md Golam Kibria, senior district and sessions judge, Director of Training, JATI, spoke at the event.
